The name Gretzky Wayne is known not only to every Canadian. Schoolchildren play hockey and dream of becoming at least a little like him, and throughout the world it is rare to meet a person who has not heard of this famous hockey player. While Canada and Russia are rich in hockey talent, this individual stands apart. Many people say that true talents appear in the world once every hundred years. But a talent like Gretzky comes along much less often. And such a star has not yet risen on the hockey horizon.
Childhood years of a hockey player
Wayne was born into a family of second-generation immigrants. At the beginning of the last century, his grandfather Terenty emigrated from Russia to Canada. And already in Canada he found himself a wife, also from the former Russian Empire, Maria. This family was engaged in farming. And it was there that Wayne Douglas Gretzky was subsequently born - this is the hockey player’s full name.
Grandfather Terenty was very close to little Wayne and encouraged him to play hockey. Often he and his grandmother watched the progress of training and the first hockey successes of their grandson. Gretzky Wayne grew up quite a tall and strong boy. And as eyewitnesses note, he usually played hockey with guys who were several years older than him.
But this did not bother him at all. At the age of five he competed for hockey team his hometown, in which six-year-old boys showed up. And already at the age of ten he performs in children's hockey league, where he scores 378 goals per season, which is an absolute record to this day.
At that time, he constantly looked up to his idol Gordie Howe, who was still shining on the ice at that time. And at the age of 14, the teenager takes to the ice against twenty-year-old guys and plays in such a way that journalists call him a rising star, comparing his career with Howe’s career.
Wayne Gretzky and WHA
Already at this time young hockey player Wayne Gretzky comes to the attention of coaches of various youth teams. At the age of fourteen, he defends the colors of the Canadian national team at international tournament in Quebec, where it receives the most flattering reviews.
Starting next year, Wayne Douglas Gretzky will leave hometown, in order to continue professional career. The first youth team with which he signed a contract was the Greyhounds from the province of Ontario. It is here that he spends his first professional season, and at that time, it should be noted, he was only sixteen years old, and scores seventy goals against opponents. He goes to the World Junior Championships in Montreal in 1978 and wins it with the team. Moreover, the talented hockey player is not only the youngest participant in the championship, but its top scorer.
Like every boy in Canada, Gretzky Wayne dreams of playing in the NHL. But according to the laws of this organization, players must be over 18 years old, and Wayne was only 17. Therefore, the hockey player enters into his first adult professional contract in the WHA.
The club with which hockey player Wayne Gretzky entered into his first contract of one hundred thousand US dollars was Indianapolis. But in the same month he was exchanged to another WHA club - Edmonton. The hockey player spends his first season with him, scores 46 goals and admits best newcomer VHA. A year later, the WHA and NHL teams merged. Four WHA teams enter the NHL league, and Edmonton is among them.
First steps in the NHL
In 1979, Edmonton and its three other WHA brethren spent their first season in the NHL. Wayne is also spending his first season with Edmonton. At the end of this season, the hockey player wins his first Hart Trophy title. That is, the title of the most valuable player in the NHL. At the same time, the question of how many goals Wayne Gretzky scored received its wonderful answer. With fifty-one goals scored this season, Wayne became the youngest athlete to break the fifty-goal barrier. At that time he was only nineteen years and two months old.
Next year, Gretzky just starts churning out records. And Gordie Howe's records, which previously seemed sky-high, begin to fall one after another. In his second season, the hockey player earns the same Hart Trophy and adds the Art Ross Trophy, which is awarded to the hockey player who scores the most goals using the goal+pass system. Surprisingly, the coefficient for one game is more than two. For all time in the NHL there were only two hockey players who had a coefficient of more than two. Besides Gretzky, only Mario Lemieux achieved this result.
Hockey player number
Surprisingly, hockey players are very suspicious athletes. And the number they wear on their jersey plays a significant role for many. As mentioned above, young Wayne was a fan of Gordie Howe’s talent. And naturally, like his idol, he wanted to have the number “9”.
In his first Greyhounds team, the young hockey player just wanted to choose this number. But unfortunately, he was busy with another player. Then the athlete tried number “19” and played several matches with it. And then, on the advice of the manager, he chose “99”, by which he was remembered by all hockey fans.
It was a kind of talisman that Wayne Gretzky never parted with until the end of his career. The number on the star’s jersey, which you can see in the photo, is now in the museum of hockey glory and, as a sign of respect for the merits of the great athlete, is forever assigned to him.
Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers
History Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers were closely linked for ten years. It began when the hockey player was bought from Indianapolis in 1978 and ended in 1988, when the player was sold to " Los Angeles Kings"All the main achievements of Edmonton are connected precisely with the name of Gretzky. Neither before nor after this team has reached such sporting heights. All the more strange was the decision of the club owner, after a ten-year period of cooperation, to decide to sell the hockey player to Los Angeles.
This exchange was given the stellar name The Trade. There were fifteen million dollars and two draft picks in the following years. The only thing the hockey player was able to bargain for was the partners who transferred with him. Wayne Gretzky, whose career has changed dramatically, ends up from cold hockey Edmonton to warm and not at all hockey Los Angeles.
Winning the Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is the prize every Canadian boy wants to hoist above his head. Moreover, for some time now, most young hockey players in different parts of the world have also been dreaming about this. Wayne was no exception to the rule. But if for most this dream remains a dream, then Wayne Gretzky, whose biography is already filled with various events, can be proud of four such outstanding moments. All Stanley Cup victories are associated with the Edmonton Oilers. It was with this team that he was able to celebrate significant victories in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988.
The hockey player had one more run at the Cup, but with another team - the Los Angeles Kings - in 1991, but in the final the “kings” lost the cup to Montreal. Thus, as the Wayne Gretzky statistic goes, famous hockey player participated in five finals, four of which he won.
Gretzky's records
It is impossible to talk about the records of hockey players in Canada without mentioning a person like Gretzky Wayne. Its records constitute the largest number of all available ones. So, currently, according to statistics, the hockey player holds 61 records. Of these, 40 were established in the “regular season” category, fifteen in the “playoff” category and six in the “NHL All-Star Game” category.
Most of these records will not be broken in the foreseeable future. Here are just a few of them:
- The main indicator of a striker is the number of goals he has scored. Thus, Gretzky scored 894 goals, playing 1,487 matches in twenty-five seasons. Second-placed Gordie Howe, long since retired and no longer alive, scored 801 goals, but it took him 2,186 games in thirty-five seasons to get there.
- In addition, as mentioned above, Gretzky scored more than two goals (goal+ass) per game in many seasons. Only one hockey player managed to repeat this figure, but last time this was twenty years ago.
Of course, hockey fans are looking forward to the time when a new Wayne Gretzky will appear on the hockey rink, who will be able to review all the records set by the first (and there are more than 60 of them), but for now Wayne can feel relatively calm - no one and nothing can protect his fame and records threatens.
Ice Kings from Los Angeles
Beginning in 1988, the hockey player played for a team from Los Angeles for eight seasons. If before Gretzky’s appearance in this city, its residents had very little idea of what hockey was and why it was necessary to buy tickets to their team’s matches, then with Gretzky’s arrival in Los Angeles, the tastes of its residents changed significantly. Thanks to the hockey player, who at that time had acquired the title of The Great One, tickets to a stadium that had previously only been filled to thirty percent capacity became as much of a problem as tickets to his favorite basketball team, the Lakers.
Wayne's international career
If we talk about international career hockey player, it started quite early and very well - with winning the World Junior Hockey Championship. In adult hockey, Wayne's successes are much more modest. Wayne Gretzky's goals continued to delight fans of the Canadian national team, but there were practically no titles won by this team.
Thus, the national team, together with the hockey player, won the Canada Cup three times and took second place once. And at the World Hockey Championship in Finland, she was only able to win third place - these are all the successes of the Canadian team with Wayne Gretzky. Therefore, many Canadian hockey fans have concluded that hockey players value the regular season and the Stanley Cup more than the honor of defending the colors of their team. Wayne Gretzky, whose interviews were often quoted in the press, apparently shared this attitude of Canadian hockey players towards the national team's meetings on the international stage.
Janet Jones - Gretzky's wife
Many fans of the hockey player claim that Wayne’s family life, both by American and Canadian standards, was very successful. At the age of twenty-three, the athlete met a young actress, his own age. Wayne Gretzky's wife Janet Jones began acting in films around the same time as her future husband began playing professional hockey. By the time of their first meeting, the girl had been acting for more than ten years.
The most famous film, for which not only movie lovers, but also hockey fans can remember her, was “Police Academy”, the fifth part. And four years after the first meeting, the wedding took place. After his marriage, Wayne did not give up playing hockey, and Janet continues to act in films to this day. You can see the wedding photo of this married couple in our article.
It clearly shows that Wayne is happy. And the athlete still has this attitude in family life today.
Wayne's children and grandchildren
The famous hockey player was productive not only on the NHL ice field. Wayne Gretzky also set many records in his family life. But the most important of them is that twenty years will soon pass after Janet and Wayne's wedding.
This married couple has five children. In the photo offered in the article, you can only see the three eldest heirs of the star. His first daughter was named Paulina and was born at the end of 1988. A year and a half later, in the middle of summer, her brother Ty was born. And two years later another son was born - Trevor. This is exactly the part of the family that is visible in the photograph. All these children appeared in the family of an active hockey player.
The two youngest children were born after the end of their professional career. In the summer of 2000 - Tristan. By the way, the difference between the third and fourth child is almost eight years. But the hockey player’s family did not rest on this, and a few years later the last child to date appeared - daughter Emma.
For some time, the Gretzky family led a measured, calm, happy family life. But everything changes, and in 2015 Wayne becomes a grandfather. Now, most likely, a new round of development for this happy family will begin.
End of hockey career
The end of a hockey player's career is always sad, especially if it great athlete. After spending eight seasons in Los Angeles and losing the Stanley Cup Final, the team fell into disarray. standings and no longer qualified for the playoffs. After this, Wayne begged the club management to exchange him for more strong team. Such an exchange took place, and the hockey player moved to the St. Louis Blues.
Here he plays only one season of hockey. Wayne Gretzky did not find mutual understanding either with the team management or with his partners. It was the most unsuccessful season in the history of a hockey player. During this period he played eighteen matches and scored only eight goals. Wayne begins searching for a new club and eventually finds one.
It would be surprising if a hockey player, rightfully called great, failed to find a club where he could continue his career. Such a club turned out to be the New York Rangers, in which the athlete spends the last three seasons of his life in the NHL. Although Wayne did not achieve great success during these three seasons, he nevertheless played almost two hundred and fifty matches and scored more than fifty goals. He either broke or set many of his records in these seasons.
Induction of a hockey player into the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame
After his retirement, Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Interestingly, it has existed for many years, and the most remarkable hockey players have been introduced here who have made a huge contribution to the development of this sport in Canada and abroad.
The hall is located in Toronto. Usually it accepts hockey players who have already completed their sports career. Moreover, the period after which consideration of candidates begins is at least three years. Sometimes organizers make exceptions for the most outstanding athletes. And there were ten such exceptions in total.
Wayne Gretzky was inducted into the named Hall seven months after the end of his sports career. This was done in 1999, and after that, for almost twenty years, no hockey player was awarded such an honor - early induction into the Hall of Fame. It is not for nothing that one of his friends, Mark Messier, expressed the opinion that such great hockey players appear on the world stage even less often than once every thousand years.
The so-called symbolic team of the century was also formed - the Centennial All-Star Team, which included all the greatest hockey players of the twentieth century. The only representative of North American hockey included in this team was Wayne Gretzky. Of these six truly great hockey players, four were Soviet Union, one - Sweden and one - Canada.
Interestingly, the attacking line looked like this: the center of the attack was Wayne Gretzky with wingers Makarov and Kharlamov. The defense was organized by Fetisov and Salming, and the gate was defended by the famous Tretyak. It was this team, according to hockey experts, that reflected the greatness of hockey skill over a century.
Gretzky's modern life and business
Although Gretzky ceased to be an active professional hockey player, he nevertheless did not give up hockey. And it’s probably impossible, if you’ve been skating since you were four years old, have been playing professional hockey for more than twenty-five years and are called great, to throw it all out of your life in an instant.
Literally a year after the end of his professional career, Wayne becomes a co-owner of one of the NHL clubs, called the Phoenix Coyotes, and has been involved in the life of this club for nine years. Gretzky has been his coach for the last four years. Thus, he tried all hockey specialties outside the hockey rink. And in 2002, he was invited to be the general manager of the Canadian national hockey team at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, where the team won.
But Gretzky has quite a lot of talent outside of sports. He is not only a happy family man, but also a successful businessman. Probably, the popularity that he has not only in Canada, but throughout the world, helps him and his family own a restaurant. And many visitors, being near this establishment, will be happy to visit it only because it is owned by the famous Wayne Gretzky, whose biography is known to many. Also available line men's clothing under his brand.
Thus, Gretzky became great not only because he played hockey beyond compare, but also because he was able to change the image of the NHL, which before him was usually represented by a big guy with a tooth knocked out by a puck. Currently, the NHL is symbolized by Gretzky's open smile, and himself canadian hockey Thanks to the great striker, he acquired a human face.
Hockey in Canada is rightfully considered the number one sport. Every city, even the smallest one, has its own indoor skating rink. Each educational institution is represented. Accordingly, such wild popularity of this sport gives birth to its idols. In Canada, the incredible Wayne Gretzky deservedly became so. Legendary hockey player, who has 61 personal records during his professional career. The nickname of the hockey player received from the fans - the Great - says a lot.
First steps
Future hockey player Wayne Gretzky was born on January 26, 1961 in the small Canadian town of Brantford in southwestern Ontario. Wayne's parents were far from sports, but the hockey boom that captured Canada in the 60s could not pass by his family. In addition to popularity, hockey provided the opportunity to make very good money. Professional hockey players of that time received around $100,000 per season. And often parents tried to connect their children’s lives with professional sports.
The first hockey rink in little Wayne's life was in the backyard of his own house. And already with three years Dad started putting his son on skates. At the age of five, Gretzky Wayne played for the children's team in his city. And by the age of ten, the first popularity came. The performance with which the young hockey player performed forced Canadian newspapers to write about the rise of a new hockey star. As time has shown, they were right.
Hockey Canada needed a new hero. The time of Gordie Howe and Bobby Ora was running out. Single season, conducted at the junior level, confirmed the advances that Gretzky generously distributed. Wayne scored 70 goals with the Sioux Greyhounds junior team in the Ontario Hockey League. It was obvious that Gretzky had already outgrown his junior level. All that remained was to prove his worth at the adult level.
Professional career
In 1978, hockey North America was torn between two leagues: the World Hockey Association (WHA) and it was clear that hockey player Wayne Gretzky would continue his career in one of them. To some extent, the age limit when going on the ice helped determine the choice. In the NHL, players were only allowed to play after turning 18 years old. So there wasn’t much choice, and the first professional contract was signed with the WHA club, the Indianapolis Racers. The amount of the contract was amazing. The club agreed to pay the 17-year-old hockey player an amount in the region of $100 thousand monthly.
In May 1978, Wayne Gretzky made his debut in adult hockey. And at the end of the month, Gretzky ended up in another club. The Edmonton Oilers became exactly the club where the young player turned into a world hockey star.
In 1979, a significant event took place in the life of North American hockey. Of the two big leagues, only the NHL remains afloat. Several clubs from the WHA, including Edmonton, are moving to the NHL.
Hockey experts were initially quite skeptical about Gretzky’s prospects in promoting a strong style of play, and the leading players had quite impressive dimensions. Gretzky, with a height of 182 centimeters and a weight of 80 kilograms, looked quite delicate against their background. But already the first season in the NHL put all skeptics to shame. The prize for the most valuable player of the season is 51 goals scored. Already in Gretzky's first season, Wayne became the youngest sniper to score 50 goals. At that time he was 19 years and 2 months old.
The years Gretzky spent with Edmonton were the best for both the player and the club. Four victories in the Stanley Cup, 6 years in a row the team scored more than 100 points in the regular championship. And a huge number of individual prizes. But everything ends someday...
Career after Edmonton
In August 1988 hockey world I was shocked by the news about the sale of Wayne Gretzky. The next club of the great hockey player was the Los Angeles Kings, an outsider in the league. This transfer put an end to Gretzky's hopes of winning another Stanley Cup. The composition of the “kings”, even with the acquisition of Gretzky, did not allow us to count on this.
The move to another club did not affect the hockey player’s personal performance. He still scored a lot and assisted his teammates. But the maximum that the “kings” were able to achieve was reaching the final. Realizing that Los Angeles will have to forget about championship ambitions, Wayne Gretzky asks for a trade. And on February 27, 1996, he became a player for the St. Louis Blues. But in the semifinal series the team loses to Detroit, and immediately after the end of the season Wayne signs a contract with the New York Rangers. This club becomes the last in the hockey player’s successful career.
Gretzky Wayne: number 99
Wayne Gretzky began his hockey career wearing number 19. As a child, Wayne’s idol was the legendary Gordie Howe, who wore number 9. In the first club, this number was occupied, and the hockey player chose number 19 for himself. But at the insistence of the general manager of the Greyhounds, after some time he changed it to 99.
The NHL has a tradition of retiring the numbers of players who have left a significant mark on the team's history. Wayne Gretzky's number has been retired by two teams: the Edmonton Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings. Later, it was decided to completely remove number 99 from circulation.
Wayne Gretzky: statistics
Wayne Gretzky's performance has amazed everyone since his first season. During his career, Wayne scored 894 goals in the regular season and 122 goals in the playoffs. This result is a record in the NHL. Among the current players, there are also no players who could come close to Gretzky’s results. In addition to the goals scored, he has 1963 assists, which is also best result in the history of the league. These indicators, coupled with the titles won, answer the question of why Wayne Gretzky is called “The Great”.
Friends of rich people often ask the question “what to give for the holidays to the person who has everything?” When creating this article, we had to face a similar problem - what to write about a hockey player about whom everything has been written? About the one to whom all the sports publications in the world and most non-sports publications sang their praises, for whom the second largest country in the world prays and who is respected by the first, about whom even small children somewhere along the Zambezi River have heard at least something?
Of course, it is impossible without a mandatory program - titles, records, major milestones, and we will fulfill it with dignity. And yet, first of all, we would like to talk about Gretzky as a person, with his fears, experiences, and work on himself. When from the age of 10 you
called a star and compared to Gordie Howe, you need to be a truly outstanding person not to become deaf from the piercing sound of copper pipes and not break under the weight of the load placed on your shoulders.
Few people remember now, but Gretzky was not always a Canadian god. There were times when he was more often compared to a golden calf (as, for example, Ovechkin has been lately) - he scores a lot of points, but the team is neither empty nor rich. What is a record holder worth in North America who has never won the Stanley Cup? Wayne knew the answer to this question firsthand. It's worth nothing.
The irony of fate: he had to fight on the court not only with an opponent, but also with his own incredible talent, a heavy weight hanging around his neck. I'm sure not to a single person in the whole hockey history there were no such crazy demands as were made of Gretzky. But the most amazing thing is that he... fulfilled these requirements.
EH, TERENTY LAVRENTIEVICH...
Even before the revolution, in the Grodno province, on the territory of present-day Belarus, there lived a simple peasant Terenty Lavrentievich Gretsky, who dreamed only of a piece of his land and family well-being. But getting land at that time was extremely problematic, and therefore Terenty, together with his wife Anna, decided on a very adventurous trick - he went to North America, to earn money.
Over time, farming appeared there, children were born, but the family had no intention of staying in America. Seven years later, Anna and the children went home, and Terenty himself stayed behind, sorting out some matters. And everything would have been fine, but the revolution began, then the Civil War, and it turned out to be impossible to leave the new, already Soviet homeland. Moreover, personal problems arose: Anna and Terenty quarreled. So Gretsky remained in the USA completely alone.
However, he did not grieve for long. He married a Ukrainian woman named Maria, and during World War II he enlisted in the Canadian Army (he was told that this best way to get to the battlefields in Europe, and they didn’t lie), went through the entire war and eventually settled in Canada, buying himself a farm. During this time, he had another son, Walter, and a little later a grandson, Vanechka. In the English manner - Wayne...
FORWARD TO GRANDMOTHER'S GATE!
The first goalkeeper who stood in the way of the great master's future was his own grandmother. Two-year-old Gretzky
played in his house with a small toy stick and ball. Usually, when the whole family gathered around the TV watching “Hockey Night in Canada,” he would roll up to his grandmother’s chair and slap the ball, and when it bounced off her foot, he would try to finish it off at all costs. There was nothing surprising in this behavior of a child who had barely learned to walk - in Canada this is a completely normal phenomenon.
“I started skating when I was two and a half years old,” Gretzky recalls. “My father filled the skating rink in the yard in winter. I ran home just to eat. He sat down at the table without taking off his skates. At the age of five he played for the 10-year-old team. At 14 – with 20-year-olds.”
Although Wayne spent several hours a day at the skating rink flooded by his father, he was interested in more than just hockey. His athletic talent was very versatile. The boy, who did not stand out in either height or weight, played baseball, football and basketball at school, ran, tried his hand at golf, and for some time even went to the weightlifting gym. Often his father would have to take him to two different games on the same day: a hockey game and a baseball game. Wayne had tremendous success in both sports.
By the way, some fans of the game with bat and ball still believe that Gretzky chose the wrong path, believing that he could have become a great pitcher if he had connected his fate with baseball.
For a long time they did not want to accept the young hockey padawan into children's teams - at that time Canadians began playing hockey at the age of 10, and Gretzky was already well developed by the age of six. But one day Wayne saw an advertisement in the newspaper about an open competition for a rookie team, took part in it and ended up on his first team.
That season, the little hockey player, of course, did not shine too much, but he managed to score his first goal. Teammates rushed to congratulate the “son of the regiment”, and assistant coach Bob Phillips said: “This is your first goal, Wayne, but there will be many more goals to come.” He himself had no idea how prophetic these words would be.
WHITE VORTEX
When Gretzky was 10 years old, playing for the children's team in his native Brentford, he managed to score 378 goals and make 139 assists in 85 games in one season. For boys his age, these figures became an absolute record. The young hockey player was compared to both Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe, but few could have imagined that a star had appeared in Canada who would soon eclipse all previously known hockey players.
The popularity of the young talent grew rapidly. Little girls asked him for his autograph, fans almost tore the hockey player apart after particularly successful matches, and once a police escort was needed to save Wayne from being beaten. These are the elders
the brothers of the losing boys agreed to beat the offender - they had to leave the arena under police supervision.
Already in those years, he was given the nickname Le Grand, that is, the Great, and another one, the White Whirlwind, because of the unusual, dazzling white color of his gloves.
Fans specially came from other cities to watch the child play, but one should not assume that the life of this little prince went like clockwork. Very early on, he had to get used to the bullying of his opponents, the ridicule of his teammates and the real hatred of fans of losing teams. More often than not, Wayne held back his emotions, but sometimes they still broke through.
Once, when the score was 3:6, the opponent's fans laughed at him - they say, this guy is now going to score four goals for us. They didn't know that they were playing with fire. Gretzky did score four times and add an assist. His team won with a score of 8:7. He drove up to the dumbfounded jokers and showed them the number “4” on his fingers.
“WHAT DRUG ARE YOU INTERESTED IN?”
Wayne's move from provincial Brentford to the Junior League B team turned out to be perhaps the most difficult decision for the Gretzky family. The parents did not want to let the 14-year-old fragile boy be torn to pieces by 20-year-old big boys. In addition, they rightly believed that in such a big city as Toronto, you can find a lot of trouble on your own without any hockey.
But Wayne himself was adamant. For a long time he convinced his parents that he was already old enough for such a trip, asked what could be so terrible that could happen, and in the end he found a killer argument. This episode was described in the book “Wayne Gretzky” by his father Walter and journalist Jim Taylor:
“In a big city you can easily fall into bad company and get involved in their affairs,” said Walter. – Yes, get involved, even if you understand that you are doing something bad. Just to be mistaken for your boyfriend.
“You mean drugs and stuff?” – Wayne asked point blank.
- Yes.
- And this is the only reason?
- Yes.
- OK, give me the money, tell me what drug you are interested in, and in half an hour I will bring it to you.
After this, it became clear to the parents that their son was no longer a child and was quite capable of making independent decisions, no matter in Brentford or Toronto.
“SMILE, THIS IS A GIVEAWAY PROGRAM”
After playing for two years in the B league, Wayne moved to the next level. In the 1977–78 season, he played for the Greyhounds junior team of the Hockey League.
Ontario (OHL) and made a real splash, earning 182 (70+112) points in 64 matches. It was at this time that his name became known throughout the country, and here he received his famous number - “99”.
Gretzky wanted to be like his idol Gordie Howe, who wore number “9,” but the team’s number nine was already taken, and so at first he had to be content with numbers “14” and “19.” And only later, on the advice of Greyhounds general manager Murray McPherson, Gretzky took this somewhat pretentious (it was even called “football”) number.
In his book, Wayne's father describes another funny incident. When the boy first joined the Greyhounds, the first thing he had to learn about was an unusual initiation ceremony for newcomers - they had to run naked through the park. At first, the newcomers did not take the threat seriously, but one day the “veterans” of the team took them to the park and dropped them out of the car in their underpants. The police immediately arrived, and Gretzky, along with the rest of the guys, went to the station in such an unsightly form.
What kind of thoughts did not enter his head at that moment? He thought he would never be able to play in the NHL again if he had a criminal record and was banned from entering the United States. But it soon became clear that it was just a prank. In order to preserve the tradition of the “Greenhounds” and make the work of law enforcement officers easier, the team agreed with the police to organize such mini-performances. The “old men” laughed for a long time at the debutants who believed that they would have to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
To be continued...
Hearing the nickname “Great” in hockey circles, it immediately becomes clear that we are talking about Wayne Gretzky. The best hockey player in history, who holds all NHL records.
From the age of three on skates
It seems that Gretzky was born wearing skates. Wayne first started skating at the age of three and immediately began to show great promise. His first coach in life was his father, and ice arena the yard of his own house, where he made zigzags on the ice between tin cans and jumped over a stick after receiving a pass. At five he was already playing for the city children's team with ten-year-old boys. Wayne was almost always the youngest on the ice; for example, at the age of 10, he faced off against quite grown-up guys in the youth league and always showed his great performance.
At the same age, he set his first record, during the season he scored 378 goals and made 139 assists in 85 games.
Wayne overcame subsequent age barriers with ease and all the newspapers wrote about him, they started talking all over Canada, awaiting his transition to adult hockey.
Superjunior
At 14 years old, young athlete got into professional hockey. The Greyhounds junior team was the first of his serious career.
Wayne's idol was Gordie Howe, who played under the number 9, but this number was taken by juniors, so the future record holder became number 99, which everyone associates with to this day.
At 17, Gretzky signed a contract with the Indianapolis Racers for fabulous money at that time, 100 thousand dollars. Gretzky was not yet accepted into the NHL due to his age. As part of Indianapolis, the junior played only 8 matches, after which he was traded to the Edmonton Oilers.
"Edmonton"
For the Oilers, buying Gretzky was the most winning decision. IN
In his first season, the 18-year-old scored 104 points, scoring 43 goals and making 61 assists. After his appearance, the usual middle team immediately got into the finals. In the summer of 1979, he found himself in the NHL, thanks to the merger of the two leagues.
This is a career in the best hockey league in the world.
During his first season, he received 137 points and the title of most valuable player of the season, which stuck with him for 8 long years.
Canada has always had the most talented players, much more than in all other countries, but such a dominant hockey player has never been seen even there.
Gretzky era
The eighties became the era of Gretzky and his team. They won the Stanley Cup four times, and Wayne also surpassed 200 points in the regular season four times.
At that time, Wayne set NHL records for goals (92), assists (163) and points (215) in a single season. He also holds major records in playoff series.
A super sniper with a perfect view of the court, partners and opponents.
Together with his teammates, he always arranged unforgettable matches, regularly beating opponents on the ice.
But something went wrong and the owner of the Oilers made a decision that shocked everyone, players, fans, and Waite himself, to exchange his best player to the Los Angeles Kings.
"Los Angeles"
From then on, a new page began in Gretzky's history. The “Kings of Los Angeles” were, without exaggeration, a rather weak team and Wayne used the principle of visibility and began to pull players to a new level by his personal example. The team’s results began to improve; before Gretzky’s appearance in this city, residents had little idea what hockey was and why it was necessary to buy tickets to matches, but with the advent of a new player, they began to go to their team’s matches, and the team even began to get into the playoffs.
It is in this team that Gretzky achieves his goals eternal records in NHL history, he immediately receives another Hart Trophy and becomes top scorer regular season.
But over time, Gretzky’s sniper norm begins to fall; the decline in performance does not prevent him from leading the team to the final of the 1993 playoffs.
which became the Kings' best result, they will not be able to get into the top eight of the Western Conference in subsequent seasons.
In 1996, Gretzky left the Los Angeles Kings, asking to move to a stronger team.
Decline of a career
After leaving the “kings,” Wayne ends up in St. Louis, where he again makes it to the playoffs, although he doesn’t go far in it.
Soon he has a conflict with the club's management and, after spending only a year at this club, he moves to the New York Rangers. Here he plays for three seasons. This club becomes the last in the hockey player’s successful career.
Although Wayne did not achieve great success during these three seasons, he nevertheless played almost two hundred and fifty matches and scored more than fifty goals. He either broke or set many of his records in these seasons.
He scored 3,000 career points against Montreal. And in 1998, in a match against New Jersey, he scored his 1000th career goal. And in the same year he was awarded the title “The Greatest Player in Hockey History.”
Apparently, the sharply dropped statistics pushed Wayne to retire.
Number 1
After deciding to leave and announcing the news to the public, everyone from fans to then-US President Bill Clinton urged Gretzky to stay.
But an unyielding Wayne ended his playing career in April 1999.
Of course, he didn’t leave hockey at all and soon became a co-owner of Phoenix, at one time he even coached the team himself.
Then, as the general manager of the Canadian team, he became a winner Olympic Games 2002, realizing his dream, although not as a player.
Before he even reached the age of thirty, Wayne Gretzky became an unquestioned hockey legend. Having broken almost every possible NHL record, he set milestones for subsequent generations that are becoming unattainable. Any hockey player moving up in the all-time records table and trying to get as high as possible in it understands that the highest possible place is second. The first is forever occupied by the great Wayne Gretzky.
Personal life
Wayne not only broke hockey records, but also achieved great success in his personal life.
His happy marriage will soon be 30 years old. With his wife, actress Janet Jones, they have 5 children and welcomed a grandson in 2015.
The NHL has a tradition of retiring the numbers of players who have left a significant mark on the team's history. Wayne Gretzky's number has been retired by two teams: the Edmonton Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings. Later, it was decided to completely remove number 99 from circulation.
Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame just 7 months after retiring.
STORIES
Great Player (Wayne Gretzky)
Wayne Douglas Gretzky (January 26, 1961, Brantford, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian ice hockey player, center forward, the greatest hockey player of all time, one of the most famous athletes XX century, received the nickname “Great”. In the National Hockey League, Gretzky set 61 records (more than any other player) and repeatedly won individual League awards (including 9 awards for the most valuable player and 10 for the best scorer of the season). He was included in the symbolic team of the century “Centennial All-Star Team” of the International Ice Hockey Federation. He won the Stanley Cup four times as a member of the Edmonton Oilers.
Wayne's grandfather, Terenty Lavrentievich Gretsky, immigrated to Canada from the Grodno province of the Russian Empire (Belarus) at the beginning of the 20th century.
In the 60s, Canada experienced a hockey boom. Since childhood, Gretzky often played for guys who were several years older than him. At the age of five, Gretzky played for the Brentford children's team. At the age of 6, he was already playing with 10-year-old boys. When Wayne Gretzky was 10 years old, he played in a children's league and managed to score 378 goals and 139 assists in 85 games during the season. These figures became an absolute record for boys of his age. ABOUT young hockey player wrote in many Canadian newspapers, constantly comparing Wayne with the legendary Gordie Howe (the best scorer in the NHL and WHA of those times).
At the age of 14, Gretzky played against 20-year-olds. He spent the 1977–78 season with the Greyhounds junior team of the Ontario Hockey League and scored 70 goals. He wanted to be like his idol Gordie Howe, who wore number 9, but the number 9 was already taken, and Wayne, after first wearing the number 19 for several weeks, chose, on the advice of Greyhounds general manager Murray McPherson, the number " 99". Gretzky wore this original number for the first time on the ice while playing for the Greyhounds. The number 99 in hockey will now always be associated with the name of Wayne Gretzky.
Having played at the Junior World Championships in Montreal in 1978 at age 16, he became the youngest participant in the tournament. Having finished the championship first in the list of top scorers, Gretzky was selected to the All-Star team and recognized as the best striker of the championship.
In May 1978, Gretzky made his debut in big hockey. He ended up in the World Hockey Association (WHA), where there were no restrictions on signing contracts with juniors. In the NHL, you could only get on the ice after 18 years of age. The American club Indianapolis Racers signed a contract with 17-year-old Gretzky for about $100,000, and already in the same month Indianapolis traded Gretzky to the Edmonton Oilers - a club that, thanks to Wayne and his partners, became one of the best teams North American hockey. In his first season, Gretzky scored 46 goals and 110 points. He was recognized as the best newcomer of the WHA.
In 1979, after the collapse of the World Hockey Association, the Edmonton Oilers joined the NHL. Since his first season in the NHL, Gretzky began to break one scoring record after another.
At the end of the season, Wayne Gretzky won his first of nine NHL Most Valuable Player titles (eight of them in a row) and received the Hart Trophy. In addition, by scoring 51 goals, Gretzky became the youngest Pentecostal sniper in the history of the League: at that time, Wayne was only 19 years and 2 months old.
In his second year in the NHL, Gretzky won his first of ten NHL scoring titles (seven of them in a row), received the Art Ross Trophy and established new record NHL by number of assists (109) and points (164) scored in a season. On February 18, 1981, Wayne scored 4 goals against St. Louis in one period, repeating the League record for the number of goals scored during this period of time. On December 30, 1981, in a match against Philadelphia, Gretzky set another NHL record: he scored his 50th goal of the season, requiring him only 39 games. Before this, only Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy had achieved such a rate of fire, but their result was somewhat worse: 50 goals in 50 championship matches.
The first two years in the NHL were spent “breaking in” the team, but starting with the 1981-82 season, the Oilers scored more than 100 points in the regular season for 6 years in a row and 4 times - in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988 years - won the Stanley Cup. Gretzky was awarded the title “The Great” after his first Stanley Cup in 1984.
On August 9, 1988, Wayne Gretzky unexpectedly became the central figure in one of the biggest trades in NHL history: Edmonton owner Peter Pocklington decided to trade him to the Los Angeles Kings, one of the league's weakest teams.
Wayne did not hide his tears when he told reporters about his transition: for a long time he could not believe that they had done this to him.
Until 1988 hockey matches in Los Angeles, the local sports palace “Forum” was filled to a maximum of a third. Losses reached $5 million a year. But Gretzky's arrival increased Californians' interest in hockey, making it just as easy to get a ticket to the Forum to watch the Los Angeles Kings, the region's only representative in the NHL. big problem, as well as for Los Angeles Lakers games (popular basketball team NBA). Gretzky's salary increased to $2 million.
On October 15, 1989, one of the most remarkable matches in Wayne Gretzky's career took place. In a game against one's own former team“Edmonton Oilers”, Gretzky scored another productive points and broke the result of the League's top scorer Gordie Howe - 1850 points for his career. Gretzky scored his 1,850th point 4 minutes 32 seconds into the game with a pass to defenseman Tom Laidlaw, who put the team ahead. By the end of the third period, the score was 4-3 in favor of the Oilers, and with 1 minute, 46 seconds left, Kings coach Tom Webster called a timeout. Gretzky had been on the ice for 3 minutes continuously at this point, and was extremely exhausted, but nevertheless asked the coach to leave him on the ice. A minute and a second before the end, with the crowd chanting “Gretzky! Gretzky!”, the “Kings” won the face-off and the six of them began the final assault on the enemy goal. And just 8 seconds later, 53 seconds before the end of the third period, with an accurate shot from the spot, Gretzky evened the score in the match, scoring his 1851st point, and became the absolute best scorer in NHL history. The game was interrupted and a celebration of the record began. After the game resumed, it went into overtime, where Gretzky scored winning goal. So the Great Player punished his former club, who traded him.
After moving to the Los Angeles Kings, Gretzky helped the team improve its performance. In the 1990–91 season, the Kings scored 102 points, finishing first in the Smith Division. Gretzky's 40 points in the 1993 playoffs allowed the Kings to reach the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in the club's history, where they lost to Montreal after five matches.
On March 23, 1994, in a match against Vancouver, Gretzky scored a goal against Kirk McLean, it was the 802nd goal of Wayne's career, and he, ahead of Gordie Howe, became the leading sniper in NHL history. In 1994, Gretzky became the top scorer of the season for the tenth time in his career and received another Art Ross Trophy. The 33-year-old Gretzky became the oldest goalscorer in the last three decades, again drawing analogies to Gordie Howe, who won the title in 1963 at the age of 35.
However, the Kings never won a Stanley Cup with Gretzky. The 1994/95 season turned out to be especially unsuccessful for the team. At one game in San Jose at the end of the regular season, Gretzky was greeted by this banner from San Jose Sharks fans: “All the Royal Keepers and the entire Royal Army cannot let Gretzky play in the playoffs again!” Everyone understood that the strength of the weak Kings lay in one Great Player who carried the entire team.
After the success of 1993, the Kings, unexpectedly for everyone, became an outsider in the league and could not make the playoffs until 1998. Gretzky requested a trade to a stronger team and was sent to the St. Louis Blues on February 27, 1996.
That same season, he became St. Louis' leading scorer with 102 points, reaching the 100-point mark for the 15th time in his career. In the playoffs, the team was eliminated in the conference semifinals, losing there to Detroit. Immediately after the end of the season, Gretzky left the club due to a conflict with the management of the Blues and signed a contract with the New York Rangers.
On July 21, 1996, the New York Rangers signed free agent Wayne Gretzky. For the first time since the days of the legendary Edmonton, two outstanding masters again played on the same team - Mark Messier and Gretzky.
Wayne, already finishing his career, broke more and more records. On December 1, 1996, in a game against Montreal, Gretzky reached 3,000 career points: the total statistics of Wayne's success in the regular season and playoff games. On April 3, 1997, in a match against Boston, Wayne Gretzky scored his 2,700th career regular season point.
On October 26, 1997, Gretzky made his 1,851st assist. Not a single player in the entire history of the NHL has accumulated such a number of not only assists, but points in general. On March 7, 1998, in a match against New Jersey, Gretzky scored his 1,000th career goal on the power play: Wayne's total success in the regular season and playoffs.
On March 29, 1999, Gretzky made hockey history again when he scored his 1,072nd NHL goal. Wayne again overtook his childhood idol, Gordie Howe: this forward scored a total of 1,071 goals during his time in the NHL and WHA.
At the beginning of 1998, Wayne Gretzky was awarded the title “The Greatest Player in Hockey History” according to the authoritative publication The Hockey News. During his career, Wayne Gretzky was recognized as the NHL's most valuable player (Hart Trophy) 9 times in 10 seasons. Gordie Howe received this title 6 times over the same 10 years.
Wayne Gretzky held or shared 61 NHL records (more than any other player) until his retirement on April 18, 1999, including 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records and 6 NHL All-Star Game.
Gretzky set impressive records, holding the record for most goals (894), most assists in a career (1,963), most points (2,857), and hat-tricks (50) in a career. The closest player in the number of points (goal + assist) in his career is Mark Messier, who scored “only” 1887 (almost a thousand less), in third place is the legendary Gordie Howe (1850). Number of points scored by Gretzky in total for regular seasons and playoffs, reaches an incredible 3,239. Gretzky also has more assists in his career than any other player has scored points.
Another outstanding player, the second NHL scorer after Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, said: “Come on, a new Gretzky will never appear! Such hockey players are born not once every hundred, but once every thousand years.”
“Russian Rocket” Pavel Bure noted: “I received the biggest compliment of my career from Gretzky. Wayne has already retired from hockey. He was asked in an interview: “Under what condition would you stay in sports?” Gretzky replied: "If Bure had come to the Rangers, I would have stayed a year." This is the pinnacle of praise for me.”
In the NHL, number 99 is forever assigned to Wayne Gretzky. No League player will ever wear this number again. True, there is an exception. Personally, Gretzky himself may allow one of his sons to take number 99 if he thinks he deserves it.
